Double for Ashwin, Balu

Chennai, September 16, 2012, IANS:

Feroze wins Junior cars segment

While Ashwin Sundar (Dark Don Racing) won two of the three LGB Formula 4 races, Arjun Balu (Tiger Sport India) and local lad Feroze Khan notched a double apiece in their respective classes in the Saloon Car races in the fourth round of the 15th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship here on Sunday.

Ashwin, starting from pole position, dominated the race for a commanding win over arch-rival Saran Vikram (Mars Racing) to jump to the top of the championship standings with a tally of 11 points.

Saran, who won one race and finished second in the other two over the weekend, moved to second spot with 86 points, ahead of early leader Sudarshana Rao (82), who had a rather poor outing.

As well as Sundar drove, it was Balu who hogged the limelight with an imperious drive that saw him win his second race of the weekend in the Super Saloon class as the finishing order was the same as the first outing with Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan (Big Foots Racing) second and Siddharth Kishore (Performance Racing) third.

Driving a Honda City that his elder brother Sanjay put together from scratch, Balu exhibited his racing skills in brilliant fashion though the car was running on softer dampers and without the LSD (Limited Slip Differential) that caused him to ease off after opening up a massive lead over the opening four laps.

Blown engine

The race was red-flagged after eight laps when Vijaykumar Rajvirdhan, running second behind Balu, packed up with a blown engine on the exit of the last corner and the car caught fire leading to stoppage. Rajvirdhan quickly got out of the car and the fire was then put out.

The no-finish, the second of the weekend following his retirement after one lap Saturday, meant Rajvirdhan lost his top position in the championship standings with Balu picking up 50 points from two wins for a tally of 118 points. Rajvirdhan remained in second spot with 93 points while Leelakrishnan moved into third with 81.